ECON 460 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Eunice Kanenstenhawi Williams, Mary Rowlandson, Puritans
22 May 2018
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Day 1: January 10
The Captivity of Eunice Williams, ca. 1704
● 3 themes every week
○ Scenes in domestic space
■ Technology, innovations, social experience-- who did the work?
○ Normative values/ideologies
■ How were families supposed to be?
○ Domestic law
■ How it reflects/inflects family life
Kidnapping that caused a major cultural crisis in Puritan New England
● Puritan New Englanders were exceptionally, unusually healthy
○ Huge emphasis on having children → rapid expansion of society
■ Families averaged 7 children
○ People married much earlier, and only 1/20 women die in childbirth as opposed
to ⅕ in England
● Meanwhile, the Pequot essentially undergo genocide
○ Lots of conflicts between them and colonists in the 1670s
■ These often start with situations in which colonists’ lifestyle is destroying
the local environment
● Native Americans decide to target Deerfield, MA
○ The town is appealingly far from any others, and represents colonial civilization
pushing across MA and unseating their homes
○ John Williams is the minister of Deerfield
■ Ministers are a HUGE source of authority-- there’s a network between
them across the colonies
○ The French support the attack because they want a POW for ransom
○ The attack takes place 5 am-7 am
■ Took 120 captives and led them on a two-month march to Montreal
■ Includes Williams’ pregnant wife (killed on the journey) and daughter
Eunice
■ Those who couldn’t keep up were killed
● Negotiations over the captives ensue
○ Cotton Mather (also a Puritan minister from NE) says this a sign from God that
he’s displeased, it’s useful to motivate and inspire their civilization to be better
Growing up Puritan
● Houses generally had one floor but a loft for parents
○ Fences, which didn’t exist in North America until the English arrived, were widely
used
○ Fires were made inside the home, so houses had chimneys
○ Puritans took a great deal of pride from their kitchens-- had metal implements,
“civilized” cooking
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
■ Making and eating bread also seen as a sign of civilization (in contrast to
Indigenous people)
● By 1704 nicer homes were made with clapboard
○ Homes started to have brick fireplaces and glass windows, which took a great
deal of coordinated labor to manufacture
○ This abundance was possible because they had so much land to cultivate
● Puritans had very distinct family values
○ Were obsessed with child rearing because Puritans were “made, not born”
■ You have to embrace and earn the faith
■ Everything is pre-decided by God
○ Literacy was enforced with boys AND girls
■ Literacy rate here was pretty much the highest in the world at the time
○ Hardworking did not mean ambitious, it meant being content with what you had,
having a strong work ethic without coveting/desiring for personal gains
○ Names were patrilineal, also biblical and value-based
■ E.g. Grace, silence
■ They would sometimes just open a bible, put a finger down, and name the
kid whatever work it was on
■ Father had MUCH more authority than in other contexts
○ Women have to consent, are sometimes given spiritual authority
○ This society “invented” grandparents (within the Western context?)-- people
finally lived long enough to meet their grandchildren
■ Old women were favored/respected, treated well
○ Women didn’t leave the “fortress” of their home very often
Growing up Mohawk
● Catholic French presence
● Radically different work schedules
○ Women did majority of agricultural work
○ Men were almost “out of place”
○ Aunts/extended families were charged with childcare
■ Fathers were often away from home-- hunting, warfare, etc.
■ Parents individually had much less authority over their specific children
● Three sisters: corn, beans and squash
○ Represented woman gods who were given authority/respect-- had the
responsibility of feeding the people
○ Were foundation of agriculture/diets-- grew especially well together
Eunice’s story
● She was never “redeemed” (returned) from the “land of Zion” according to the Puritans
○ Her father quickly remarried and had a new family, but kept trying to bring her
back
○ A meeting was held with an English emissary in MTL 9 years after the kidnapping
○ He finds out she’s chosen to stay, was renamed Marguerite, and married a
“Catholic savage”-- an Indigenous man who converted named François-Xavier
Arosen
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
● Everyone in NE hears about this, interprets it as another punishment from god
○ Williams keeps trying to bring her back for 20 years
■ He attributed his failure to the trend of Puritans losing their strictness,
interpreted this as the punishment
● Declension: declining values in Puritan society
○ Tons of witchcraft scares
■ Always correlated with a larger social crisis
■ The accusations of crimes committed by “witches” always had to do with
them interfering with reproduction
○ 1770s-1780s: lots of fornication/adultery accusations
■ Puritans were surprisingly open about sex, encouraged love in marriages
■ But you fall in love after marriage, not before
■ Fornication (unmarried sex) is punished-- accounts for 70-80% of women
■ Only women are punished for adultery (cheating), with men the same act
was considered fornication
○ Breakdown of Puritan moral code
■ Punishment of breaking moral codes shifts from social humiliation to just
fines
■ Started calling themselves New Englanders, not Puritans
■ ⅓ of brides were already pregnant on their wedding day (ALWAYS
married the father though)
■ Sons stop marrying in birth order
■ The names change, aren’t as value/religion-based
■ Women aren’t allowed to testify in court as witnesses as often
■ Courts started focusing on debts, not victimless/moral crimes (like
swearing)
● Societies were still largely old-fashioned
○ 80% of marriages were local-- within 8-10 miles
○ Agricultural communities, economies
Eunice’s brother Stephen lived in this changing world
● They had a 10-year communication through interpreters
● Finally had a family reunion 1741, made three visits altogether
○ Stephen unsuccessfully tried to convince Eunice to stay
Captivity narratives were big in this period
● “Captivity of Mary Rowlandson” was the first American bestseller
● Trope of virtuous women fighting against “savages”
Day 2: January 17
Lord Hardwicke’s Act, ca. 1750
● Take-home exams should only take ~3 hours, they’re held to the standard of normal
ones but open-book
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
How it reflects/inflects family life to in england. Kidnapping that caused a major cultural crisis in puritan new england. Puritan new englanders were exceptionally, unusually healthy. Huge emphasis on having children rapid expansion of society. People married much earlier, and only 1/20 women die in childbirth as opposed. Lots of conflicts between them and colonists in the 1670s. These often start with situations in which colonists" lifestyle is destroying the local environment. Native americans decide to target deerfield, ma. The town is appealingly far from any others, and represents colonial civilization pushing across ma and unseating their homes. John williams is the minister of deerfield. Ministers are a huge source of authority-- there"s a network between them across the colonies. The french support the attack because they want a pow for ransom. The attack takes place 5 am-7 am. Took 120 captives and led them on a two-month march to montreal.
